Inniskillin Ice Wine Vidal Oak Aged Gold 04 187 ml
Wine Spectator rating 90 points: "Rich and thick, with a sweet/tart character, mango, guava and apricot flavors and a vibrant structure. An up-front style that's sure to please. Drink now through 2006."(BS)
From the winery: "An enchanting integration of fresh tropical fruits, mango, litchi, apricot and papaya with intermingling layers of buckwheat honey and ginger. Superb sweet / tart interplay featuring flavours of apricot and honey. Outstanding complexities and length deliver pure refined elegance, which will only improve with age. Very limited."
Detailed Info, Previous Vintage Notes, Reviews:
VINIFICATION
The harvest occurs at the pinnacle of Canada's crisp winter.
Exceptional grapes, naturally frozen on the vine, are delicately handpicked
and carefully pressed throughout the night. Grapes, picked
frozen solid from the vines, were manually loaded into the presses
without de-stemming or crushing, and were pressed at an ambient
temperature of -10?C or colder. This technique yields only a fraction
of the normal yield (approximately 10 - 20%) as most of the natural
water portion of the juice remains in the press in the form of ice
crystals. During the pressing the water in the grapes remains frozen
as ice crystals, and is easily extracted from the juice. What remains
are a few precious drops of silky sweet unadulterated liquid. Once
guided through our arduous fermentation, the resulting wine can only
be hailed as the Nectar of the Gods.
TASTING NOTES
An enchanting integration of fresh tropical fruits, mango, litchi, apricot
and papaya with intermingling layers of buckwheat honey and ginger.
Superb sweet / tart interplay featuring flavours of apricot and honey.
Outstanding complexities and length deliver pure refined elegance,
which will only improve with age.
Food Pairing Suggestions: Fruit based desserts - Tropical, stone, red,
citrus, pear, and apple, cr?me caramel, cr?me brul?e, Foie gras -
pan seared or terrine, and spiced Asian cuisine. Cheeses - Rich blue
veined & selected cream based i.e. Roquefort, saga, cambonzola,
blue ermite, le ciel de charlevoix, bleu de la moutonniere, bleubry
cayer, cabrales, mascarpone, devon cream, torta, gorgonzola.
Avoid extremely sweet desserts, as they will diminish all the wonderful
enlightened natural acidity in Icewine and create a cloying
unpleasant effect on your palate.
Serving Temp: 5 - 9?C; Shelf Life: Enjoy now through 2012.
- Maria Moessner, Inniskillin Estate Sommelier
How Ice Wine is Made
The harvest occurs at the pinnacle of Canada's crisp winter.
Exceptional grapes, naturally frozen on the vine, are delicately handpicked and carefully pressed throughout the night. Grapes, picked frozen solid from the vines, were manually loaded into the presses without de-stemming or crushing, and were pressed at an ambient temperature of -10?C or colder. This technique yields only a fraction
of the normal yield (approximately 10 - 20%) as most of the natural water portion of the juice remains in the press in the form of ice crystals. During the pressing the water in the grapes remains frozen as ice crystals, and is easily extracted from the juice. What remains are a few precious drops of silky sweet unadulterated liquid. Once guided through our arduous fermentation, the resulting wine can only be hailed as the Nectar of the Gods.
